Saints’ Drew Brees pens apology for comments about flag, national anthem
By early morning on Thursday, a video of Saints quarterback Drew Brees talking about his thoughts on protesting during the playing of the national anthem had been viewed more than 11 million times.
Brees said Wednesday he would “never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country.”
That drew a sharp rebuke from players around the NFL, including Brees’ teammates and some Chiefs players.
On Thursday morning, Brees penned an apology, which he shared on Instagram.
“I would like to apologize to my friends, teammates, the City of New Orleans, the black community, NFL community and anyone I hurt with my comments yesterday,” Brees wrote. “In an attempt to talk about respect, unity, and solidarity centered around the American flag and the national anthem, I made comments that were insensitive and completely missed the mark on the issues we are facing right now as a country.
“They lacked awareness and any type of compassion or empathy. Instead, those words have become divisive and hurtful and have misled people into believing that somehow I am an enemy. This could not be further from the truth, and is not an accurate reflection of my heart or my character.”
Here is the full post:
A post shared by Drew Brees (@drewbrees) on Jun 4, 2020 at 5:22am PDT